MPC-Based Downshift Control of Automated Manual Transmissions

Automated manual transmissions,which usually adopt synchronizers to complete the gear shift process,have many advantageous features.However,the torque interruption and the challenging control objectives during the gear shift process limit its industrial application,especially for the power-on gear downshift.This paper proposes a model predic-tive control(MPC)method to control the clutch engagement process and effectively shorten the torque interruption,consequently enhancing the gear downshift quality.During the control law deduction,the proposed MPC also accounts for time-domain constraints explicitly.After the control law was deduced,it was validated through simulations under two typical power-on gear downshift working scenarios.Both of the simulation results demonstrate that the controller proposed in this paper can shorten the torque interruption time during power-on gear downshifts while minimizing vehicle jerk for overall satisfactory drivability.

Real-Time nonlinear predictive controller design for drive-by-wire vehicle lateral stability with dynamic boundary conditions

Due to flexible drive-by-wire technology,vehicle stability control can improve handling and lateral stability under extreme conditions.However,this technology can also increase the probability of random transmission delay.This paper proposes a nonlinear model predictive control(NMPC)strategy to improve vehicle stability and compensate for the random time delay.First,by combining the nonlinear dynamic characteristics and driver behavior,we obtain a stable region of the yaw rate and the sideslip angle under complex driving conditions.Second,an NMPC controller is designed to track the reference values in the identified stable region to improve the handling and lateral stability.Finally,the actuator receives the optimized control sequence and compensates for the random time delay of the transmission channel.CarSim/Simulink simulation and hardware-in-the-loop experiment results show that the proposed controller with dynamic boundary conditions can better track the expected value of the yaw rate and suppress the sideslip angle under low adhesion road conditions.

Introduction to the benchmark challenge on common rail pressure control of gasoline direct injection engines

As one of the most important actuators for gasoline direct injection technology,common rail systems provide the requested rail pressure for fuel injection.Special system characteristics,such as coupled discrete-continuous dynamic in the common rail system,limited measurable states,and time-varying engine operating conditions,impel the combination of advanced methods to obtain the desired injection pressure.Therefore,reducing the pressure fluctuation and satisfying engineering implementation have become noteworthy issues for rail pressure control(RPC)systems.In this study,the benchmark problem and the design specification of RPC proposed by 2018 IFAC E-CoSM Committee are introduced.Moreover,a common rail system model is provided to the challengers,and a traditional PI control is applied to show the problem behaviors.Finally,intermediate results of the challengers are summarized briefly.

Gear downshift control of inverse-automatic mechanical transmission of electric vehicle

In order to improve the driving dynamics and riding comfort of pure electric vehicles,taking a two-speed I-AMT(Inverse-Automatic Mechanical Transmission)with rear friction clutch as the research object,a gear shift strategy,which consists of the open-loop control of the clutch position control and the closed-loop control of the drive motor speed control,is proposed.Considering the inherent time-delay and external disturbances within the motor speed adjustment system,a two DOF(degree-of-freedom)Smith predictor with feedforward input is designed to track the target speed of the drive motor.The feedforward input is used to eliminate the influence of clutch sliding friction on the motor speed control,while the feedback speed tracking controller is applied to realize the speed tracking performance with the existence of time-delay and the external disturbance.In order to verify the effectiveness of the gear shift control strategy and the accuracy of the two DOF Smith controller with feedforward control,simulation results comparison is firstly carried out to illustrate the effectiveness of the control scheme.Then,a light pure electric vehicle equipped with I-AMT was used for downshift experiments under large throttle,which is the most difficult working scenario to control the transmission.The experimental results show that the two DOF Smith controller can eliminate the influence of time-delay on the closed-loop control,and the proposed whole gear shift control strategy can limit the clutch slippage time within 1.5 s,resulting in a smaller shift jerk,thus guarantee the driving dynamics and riding comfort simultaneously.